Belial Braham
Belial Braham was introduced as a major backstory element for Morgaine and Sieg Braham during the Medieval game, and appeared in person in numerous backstory fics. He is an elf knight from the elf city of Nid'aigle in the Kythian region of Corvus. Backstory Belial has always been a very curious individual. As a child he was well known for being outgoing, cheerful, and patient- and for approaching absolute strangers regularly to ply them with questions. Belial was particularly curious about humankind, and took it upon himself to learn to speak Kythian so that he could visit the nearby human town of Kolanth and pester them with his incessant inquiries as well. Most people didn't mind this, though, because Belial's earnest interest and enthusiasm made him very hard to dislike. It was from his experiences with human culture that Belial developed an interest in becoming a knight, since human stories romanticized chivalry and war and the defense of the common good. However, Belial failed to account for the fact that he was not human- he was an elf. Elves lacked basic instincts for rivalry or combativeness, and as such it goes against heir most basic nature to become warriors. Belial was horrified the first time he had to kill someone. The experience left him badly traumatized, shattering his cheerful personality and turning him deeply inwards on himself. Much of his life over the next several centuries is a mystery- he prefers not to talk about it much. He did his work as a knight and went through his day-to-day life mostly on autopilot. Though he was still friendly and easygoing, he didn't connect with much of anyone on an emotional level out of a fear of letting go of the tightly clamped lid on his guilt. The only thing that ever really cheered him up was visiting the human town of Kolanth. Living in elf society, which was very restrained, formal, and polite, the comparatively carefree lives of the humans were very soothing for Belial to watch. Over time he became something of a community landmark in Kolanth, always watching but seldom engaging anyone. This went on for a bout three hundred years. Then, one day, Belial's company was sent to a tiny swamp village called Cypress Springs to deal with some wyverns that were plaguing the local herdsmen. While there, he met a woman named Morgaine Folet. She was young, only about sixteen, and very bored- and took out that boredom by playing pranks on the other elves in Belial's company. Belial eventually caught her, but her antics amused him so he decided not to report her, instead simply advising her to caution and stepping back to watch her nonsense further. She would repay his kindness a little later by saving his life when Belial was almost guided into a crocodile pit by a will-o-wisp, and the two of them became fast friends. Eventually Morgaine became a locksmithing apprentice in the town of Kolanth, and Belial continued to visit her there. Over time her good humor, compassion, and gentle teasing drew the elf more and more out of his shell, until he found himself trusting her more than he'd ever trusted anyone else in his life. Belial came to realize that he had, in fact, fallen in love with Morgaine- and after some initial hesitation on her part, she admitted she felt the same way. For a while the two of them were uncertain where to take the relationship, giving Belial's centuries long lifespan compared to the few decades Morgaine would have. Eventually, however, they agreed that enjoying what they had while they had it was the best course of action, and Belial asked Morgaine to marry him. Within a very short period of time, Morgaine realized that she had become pregnant- with twins. Initially she and Belial are overjoyed by this discovery, but as the pregnancy progresses Morgaine's health starts to decline. Being a small woman, and genetically predisposed to hard pregnancies, she is very weak and tired almost constantly for the later half of the process, and for the last two months is almost completely bedridden. Belial was sick with worry, worry not eased any by a long, difficult labor. But to his relief Morgaine survived, as did both of their children- twin sons Sieg and Nikolas. Sadly, the hybridization of elven and human blood did not favor Nikolas, and he was born with an incomplete heart. He eventually died at just four months old, leaving both Belial and Morgaine heartbroken. Fortunately Sieg was a very healthy young boy, and when Morgaine had another child, a daughter named Ophelia, two years later, she was healthy as well. The Braham family quickly settled down, living together quite happily for some time. Belial found nothing more fulfilling than being a husband and a father, and his life's earlier insecurities gradually melted away. He came to terms with his past, his job, and himself, and did his best to be a good father for his and Morgaine's children. Their lives were not entirely without incident, however. Twelve years into their marriage, Belial and his company were called to Bern to serve in the Second Langean War. During this conflict, thanks to his experience with humans, Belial acted as a liason between the human and Elvish forces. He even met the Grand Duke of Bern, Alain Stallion, and the two men shared a brief acquaintanceship during which Belial's intelligence, honesty, and affable nature won him the nobleman's respect. Belial missed his family terribly during his service in the war, and at it's conclusion he was happily reunited with them and settled back down to life as it had been before- though obviously with some slight emotional upheavals thanks to the fact that his children were now coming up on their teenage years. Belial had always been close to his family, but he came to be especially close to them during these post-war years. The two-year separation during the war gave the entire family a much greater appreciation for each other, and with his calm, easygoing personality Belial was often able to soothe his teenage children's ruffled tempers far better than Morgaine. When Sieg was sixteen, the young boy became a squire in the Nid'aigle company. Not long after this, the elves received a frantic summons for help from the Jades- a dragon was terrorizing the Corvid countryside and their help was desperately needed. Shorthanded after the war, the company had no choice but to make the otherwise ill-advised decision to bring Sieg along on this mission, to Belial's private dismay. He did his best to hid his worry over the issue, wanting to make certain that Sieg felt confident going into his first real military action. At the battle, things went horribly awry. The dragon blew up a grain barn, trapping Sieg and many others under a mountain of burning debris. It swooped down on the trapped knights, intending to finish them off, but Belial intervened. To save his son and the other knights, the elf threw a javelin at the dragon's wing, successfully diverting it's attention to himself. Unfortunately, Belial paid for his heroism with his life, as the enraged dragon turned it's fire breath upon the elven knight and killed him. The loss of Belial hit many people hard, but few harder than his family. Sieg was completely traumatized by having to watch and hear his father burned to death, as well as being trapped for a long time under the burnt out remains of the barn. He blamed himself for Belial's death, turning inwards and becoming consumed with guilt and self-loathing. Morgaine was so broken by the loss that she left Nid'aigle entirely, having a nasty falling out with Ophelia in the process. For twelve years the shattered family struggled to cope with Belial's loss... Canon RP Belial was already deceased for thirteen years by the time of King Starmey's funeral. But his presence was still felt through the influence his life and death had on Morgaine and Sieg, driving many of their actions throughout the course of the plot. Sieg in particular is strongly haunted by the memory of his father, considering that Belial died saving Sieg's life. He carries the guilt and self-accusation with him throughout the story, doing his best to hide it from the people around him. Belial's brief acquaintance with Alain Stallion during the Langean War proves beneficial here, as Sieg eventually meets Alain and is recognized for his resemblance to his father. Alain is somewhat saddened to learn of Belial's death, and does his best to discourage Sieg's fixation on his guilt over the issue. Later on, Morgaine and Sieg also discuss Sieg's guilt over Belial's death. Morgaine reassures her son that his father would be proud of the man he's become, and that Belial certainly doesn't hold his death against Sieg. She comforts her son by singing the lullaby that she and Belial wrote for him together. Participated Having already been long deceased by the main storyline, Belial does not appear in person in postgame material. However, he has made several noteworthy appearances in backstory fics for Morgaine and Sieg, eventually evolving into enough of a character in his own right to star in some works focused on him exclusively. * The Apple Tree - A short story of the long ago time when Belial was a squire, and his first experience with real, bloody combat. * A Rose Among Weeds - A story that takes place long before the mainline story in 1175. Belial cameos in parts 1-3, then again in part 5 acting as a translator and aiding the main protagonists, Rollo and Tamar, in their escape from Courdon. * Dangers of the Swamp - Belial is on late night watch duty in a rural Corvid swamp when he is caught by the allure of a will-o-wisp. Fortunately one of the citizens of the nearby human village, a woman named Morgaine, sees what's going on and saves him. The two form the beginnings of a friendship. * Counting - Morgaine has moved to Kolanth, a human village near Nid'aigle, to apprentice as a locksmith. She and Belial have become very good friends, so much so that Belial comes to her for comfort over a long-standing guilt complex he has harbored over the men he's killed as a knight. * Drunken Conversations - Morgaine gets drunk and has some inebriated conversations with Belial about his philosophies and personal choices. He, as her sober babysitter, is touched by her honest responses and waxes a bit sentimental about her acceptance of him. She brushes it off, but this only endears Belial to her more. By the end of the conversation, he realizes that he has fallen in love with her. * The Elf City - Morgaine convinces Belial to let her visit Nid'aigle, and after the two of them goof off there for a while, Belial inadvertently lets slip to Morgaine his crush on her. She is terrified of the implications for their friendship, and asks Belial to give her time to think about it. * Said and Unsaid - Morgaine gradually tests the boundaries of her relationship with Belial. He patiently lets her take things at her own pace, not pressing her. Eventually his understanding is rewarded, as she admits she has fallen in love with him too. * I Hear You Now - Belial and Morgaine discuss the escalation of their relationship and the implications. There is cuteness. * The Flowers of Beltane - At the yearly Beltane festival, Morgaine and Belial are flirty with each other, and share their first kiss. * To Be Strong Parts 2 & 3 - Belial learns that there has been a Courdonian raid on Kolanth, and Morgaine was hurt in it. He is angry on her behalf, but later on the two of them get into an argument about how Morgaine feels helpless and wants to assist in the rescue somehow, but has no training in anything that would be helpful. Belial deeply regrets the argument. At some point I should actually finish this fic. * Promise - Belial stews on his relationship with Morgaine and its future, given his elven longevity and her short human lifespan. Eventually he decides to throw caution to the wind, and asks Morgaine to marry him. She agrees. * Prison of the Mind - After Morgaine and Belial's marriage, the locksmith learns that being a knight for over three hundred years has not left Belial without some psychological scarring, and he has occasional violent nightmares. Morgaine comforts him after waking up from one such. * News - Belial comes home from an assignment to learn that Morgaine is pregnant. He is overjoyed by the news. * The Fragility of Life - Things do not go as well with Morgaine and Belial's children as they might have hoped. While one of the twins, Sieg, is healthy and strong, the other, Nikolas, has birth defects because of his hybridism. Nikolas ultimately dies from these defects, leaving Morgaine and Belial heartbroken. * Candy - Belial brings Sieg, now two, to meet his newborn sister Ophelia. * Improvising - Morgaine and Belial are flirty about their height difference. A rather short fic, but a cute one. * We've Always Been Together - Belial cares for Ophelia while she is suffering from a flu. He and Morgaine realize during the course of these events that Sieg has a strange immunity to most if not all disease, and that he and Ophelia take more after their human half in their thoughts and instincts. Belial is insecure about his ability to properly raise children with human needs, but Morgaine reassures him. * The Great Cookie Princess - Belial babysits Sieg and Ophelia while recovering from a nasty injury he got during a recent mission. There is a diabetic level of cute. * Summer Storms - Belial hears a scream from Ophelia and Sieg's room in the middle of the night and investigates. He finds that his daughter is frightened by a nasty storm raging outside, but her brother is already comforting her so Belial lets them be. * Someone to Cuddle - Belial and Morgaine celebrate their anniversary. As a gift for her, since their children are getting too big to hug and cuddle in her lap, Belial buys Morgaine a pair of kittens. * Mama Bear - While Morgaine and Belial are distracted, their children go for an adventure in the woods. Belial is horrified when Ophelia returns alone, covered in blood, and goes into the forest to find Sieg about to be killed by a bear. Belial manages to drive the bear off, but not without taking some injuries himself. * The Grand Duke and the Elf Knight - Belial is called to serve on the front lines of the Second Langean War. During his time there, the Grand Duke, Alain Stallion, comes to the elven encampment out of curiosity and ends up talking to Belial for quite a while. * War Is Glory - During the first winter of the Langean War, an epidemic of flu shoots through the ranks of Kythian soldiers. Belial is one of those struck down, and he has to try and do his work as a soldier, officier, and translator in spite of the illness. * Evil - Sieg, now thirteen, has a teenage outburst of temper over his mother being snubbed by an elvish customer. Belial calms his son down, and the two of them have a philosophical conversation about the nature of evil, love, and forgiveness. * Waning Hours - Belial is bemused by the enthusiasm of his now sixteen year old son, who is getting his first real mission. Belial promises Morgaine and Ophelia that he'll look after Sieg. Personality Belial is best compared to a Labrador retriever- easygoing, patient, unconditionally affectionate, always open to new ideas and experiences, and never judging. He is rather unusual for an elf in how open he is with his thoughts and emotions, a tendency that stems in part from his fascination with and love for human society. He does not feel the same sort of condescension towards humans that most elves do. On the contrary he has a lot of respect for humankind and recognizes their many strengths. Before meeting Morgaine, he suffered somewhat from guilt and self-accusation issues stemming from having to kill people in his knight work- something that just isn't in the nature of elves. He was very quiet and reserved during this time, mostly keeping to himself and watching the world around him without interacting with it. Upon meeting Morgaine, however, he came out of his shell and blossomed into a sweet, steady man who was (unbeknownst to him) actually being considered for promotion to Lieutenant of the Nid'aigle company when Gavin retired, before his tragic death. Belial's most defining trait, aside from his loving nature, is perhaps his capacity for empathy. He acknowledges that there are people in the world who do horrific things and need to be stopped, and that sometimes violence can't be avoided if peace is to be maintained. However, he feels compassion even for the Langian warmongers and Courdonian slavers who have tried again and again to kill or capture him. He argues that by the very nature of their evil deeds they have robbed themselves of the ability to feel real love, which in his opinion is what gives life meaning. While many would regard him as a fool and a dreamer, his open generosity and sincere nature has earned him the respect of several key people who understand the value of an honest, caring heart. AUs Countryswap In the Countryswap continuity, Belial was still born free and became a knight, however when he was around fifty to seventy years old he was captured and taken as a slave in Courdon. Sold too Baron Allendale, he was brutally conditioned until holding anything that could be a weapon made his hands feel like they were burning, and then over the course of the next few centuries he endured suffering and hardship that completely shattered his spirit, leaving him a hollowed out shell of the man he'd been as a knight. As in canon, this changes when he meets Morgaine. He performs an act of compassion towards her that saves her life, and she is moved to sympathy for him by this in spite of his being an elf slave (considered subhuman in Courdon). She does her best to help him as much as she can, and gradually the two of them fall in love. They do their best to keep the affair a secret, but when Morgaine becomes pregnant they attempt to flee to Kyth before the baby is born and gives them away. The attempt fails- they are caught, and Belial returned to Allendale. Morgaine is sold away as soon as possible, and their son, Sieg is kept by Allendale. The baron uses Sieg to extort Belial into behaving, torturing the half-elf regularly as a threat to keep Belial in line. The elf does his best to be a good father for his son, but eventually he decides the only way to save Sieg from the torture he has to endure is by making it so that Belial is no longer around to be threatened by it. Belial drowns himself when Sieg is sixteen. Childhood Friends This AU explores the idea of what might have happened if Sieg and his friend Orrin Ironbeard, a half dwarf, half four-armed ape, had met in their childhood instead of as adults. The context presented is that Belial is taking Sieg on an "adventure" for his birthday, and one of the stops on this adventure is to the little town in Kine where Orrin grew up. For the most part Belial is content to let his son and Orrin play without interfering, supervising them while chatting with Orrin's mother Aira and the farmers they lived with. However, he steps in a few times to help Sieg when the young half-elf's clumsiness gets the better of him, as well as to defend both of the children from the wrath of an angry farmer when they accidentally smash some of his wares. Relationships Morgaine Braham Belial and Morgaine were deeply, passionately in love with each other. Morgaine helped to bring out the cheerful, good humored side of the damaged knight, and he accepted her for who she was, with all her flaws and eccentricities. The two of them were happy in their life together, and complimented each other near perfectly. Belial's greatest insecurity in the relationship was the knowledge that his lifespan would probably see him outliving Morgaine by several centuries, but he tried to take that as an excuse to savor every moment he had with her, and never take even the smallest happiness for granted. Sieg Braham Sieg takes very much after his father, being a sweet natured and adorkable philosopher. Father and son often shared many long conversations about life, the nature of individuals, and the meaning of love and family. Unlike Belial, Sieg does get angry and hold grudges, something that in his younger days saw him getting into trouble on occasion- but Belial was always good at calming his son down. The two of them were extremely close, Belial loving his son unconditionally and Sieg responding in kind. Their closeness would ultimately see that Sieg was ''completely wrecked ''by his father's death. Belial sacrificing himself for his son, his final act of love, shattered Sieg mentally and emotionally. The half-elf would carry the guilt for Belial's death for years to come, blaming himself for what happened and trying to hide his distress behind a smile so as not to worry anyone else. Ophelia Braham Ophelia was not quite as close to her father as Sieg- she was more of a Mama's girl- but they still loved each other dearly while he was alive. Belial never shied away from playing whatever silly, girlish games Ophelia wanted to play, dressing up in fancy costumes at her whims and addressing her as a "princess." He often joked to Morgaine that she was turning Ophelia into a miniature version of herself, but he also saw the differences between the two and loved his daughter for herself, flaws and positive traits alike. Ophelia was the family member who was best able to cope with her father's loss, compartmentalizing it in order to help her mother and Sieg, but she still grieved very profoundly and misses his gentle kindness, patience, and calm nature, wishing she had more of these qualities in herself. Anri Hasek As Belial started to come out of his shell more, his commander Anri took notice of the shift in his self-confidence and began to assign him more responsibilities. When Belial eventually rose to an officer position within the company, they began to see a lot more of each other than they had when he was just another knight. Belial came to understand Anri's nature a lot more intimately than he had previous, recognizing that under her cool exterior she cared deeply for the soldiers under her care. He extended his own natural generosity and kindness towards Anri as they got to know each other better. Though she kept professional with him for the most part, she appreciated his efforts and occasionally softened enough around him to show her own brand of stern but sincere affection. Anri considered Belial a good friend, and though on a rational level she acknowledges that his death wasn't really her fault, she does still carry a great deal of guilt for how badly it affected Belial's family. She takes an unusually personal interest in Sieg's welfare out of a desire to honor Belial's memory and validate his selfless sacrifice. Gavin Monfort Belial and Gavin have been friends for a very long time. The older knight was one of the few people that Belial felt comfortable opening up to during the years of his emotional distance. Gavin often extended his gentle wisdom to Belial, giving him advice and encouragement. As Belial started coming out of his shell more, he and Gavin discovered that they were very much alike, sharing a paternal nature and near unshakable calm. Gavin, like Anri, was badly shaken by Belial's death and the damage it caused Belial's family. In memory of his friend, Gavin did his best to step in and take on a somewhat mentorly role to his son Sieg, and occasionally did what he could for Ophelia as well. Alain Stallion Belial met Alain Stallion during his time fighting in the Langian War. The Stallion patriarch had never seen a true elf before, and curiosity drove him to seek the Nid'aigle company out- and being the only one around at the time who spoke fluent Kythian, Belial was nominated to talk to Alain. The knight's honest good nature impressed Alain, and his intelligence and strength of character earned him the grand duke's respect. Though their meeting was brief, Belial's insights on the balance of the world and Alain's own nature would prove somewhat prophetic, and ultimately help push Alain towards uncovering the true reason behind his brother Ambrose's "madness." Their conversation would leave a lasting impression on Alain, which would eventually motivate the Stallion to extend his help to Belial's son Sieg when they crossed paths seventeen years later. Trivia * Contrary to popular belief, Belial was not named after the figure in the Hebrew bible. Instead he was named after the dragon boss Belial from the video game ''Odin Sphere, ''Shinko's all time favorite game. He was named after a dragon for the sake of irony since he had died in a dragon fight. * Belial is mentioned in Morgaine's very first post in-game, setting up his later role as a major backstory element for both her and Sieg. Interestingly, at the time the post was written he was not actually intended to be all that important. Category:Medieval charactersCategory:Non-game charactersCategory:Nid'aigle Characters Category:Corvids